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IRIN-WA Update 180 of Events in West Africa, (Friday) 3 April 1998
SIERRA LEONE: Twenty-two foreigners to be deported
The Sierra Leonean government has ordered the deportation of more than 20 foreigners, most of whom Lebanese businessmen, the BBC reported. Justice Minister Solomon Berewa said the men were being deported because of unacceptable behaviour and had been engaged in activities against the interest of Sierra Leone. They would be deported as soon as a plane was available, he said. The BBC quoted correspondents as saying many were accused of collaborating with the ousted junta. Lebanese ambassador to Sierra Leone Mohamed El Dib said he was shocked by the deportation order, AFP reported on Friday. El Dib said the Sierra Leonean authorities had not officially notified him of the expulsions. He had heard the news through the local media.
Humanitarian aid increases
Some 5,000 mt of relief food have been brought into Sierra Leone since the ousting of the junta from Freetown by the West African intervention force, ECOMOG, an OCHA report covering humanitarian activities in March said. In Freetown, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) completed its first monthly food distribution to 8,000 registered Liberian refugees and 6,650 individuals in central Freetown. The NGOs, ADRA and Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO), completed food distribution to 9,600 beneficiaries in the displaced camps of Waterloo and Grafton in Freetown. A cross-border food aid operation from Bo-Waterside, 150 km east of Monrovia, into Sierra Leone has not yet started as ECOMOG has not been able to provide escorts for relief convoys.
In the health sector, the medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), has continued to support 12 clinics and two hospitals with drugs and food in the eastern districts of Bo and Pujehun. Sanitation in these districts, including in Makeni, continues to be poor. There is an urgent need for shovels, wheelbarrows, pickaxes and containers to dispose of waste. However, significant progress has been made in exhuming and reburying hundreds of civilians originally buried in mass graves in Bo and Kenema.
NIGERIA: Clinton admits failure to influence Nigerian regime
US President Bill Clinton on Thursday admitted that his administration had failed to change the behaviour of Nigeria's military government, AFP reported. Speaking in a debate on human rights and democracy in Senegal, Clinton, quoted by AFP, said the question of Nigeria had been "the most difficult" to deal with. He added that every avenue tried with Nigerian leader General Sani Abacha "had been frustrating to us". The US applied limited sanctions against the Nigerian regime after its execution of human rights activists in 1995.
Meanwhile, Nigerian Foreign Minister Tom Ikimi on Wednesday told US ambassador to Nigeria, William Twadell, in the Nigerian federal capital, Abuja, that Clinton's statements on an Abacha candidacy were "refreshing", PANA reported. The report quoted Ikimi as saying Nigeria looked forward to a fruitful discussion and positive development between their countries. Twadell said his government's "abiding" interest in Nigeria revolved round the "application of democracy" and the engagement of US and African citizens in commercial and bilateral schemes, according to PANA.
Media harassed
The International Freedom of Expression and Exchange (IFEX) reported on Thursday the proscription of two in-house newsletters of the state chapter of the Union of Local Government Employees. According to IFEX, the acting news manager at the Lagos national station was also removed for having aired an interview with presidential candidate Alhaji M.D.Yusuf. In another incident, two journalists working for the Akwa Ibom government media were suspended without pay for an analysis of a crisis in an oil company which was considered "unacceptable".
SENEGAL: Clinton pledges support
US President Bill Clinton, in Senegal at the end of his six-nation African tour, pledged on Thursday to strengthen ties between Africa and the US, news agencies reported. Clinton told a cheering crowd in Senegal that "despite the daunting challenges, there is an African renaissance", adding that he was leaving a continent where "democracy is gaining strength, business is growing, peace is making progress". Clinton stressed Africa's economic importance and said trade and investment between Africa and the US was but a tiny fraction of what it could be, AFP reported.
GUINEA: President warns troublemakers
Guinean President Lansana Conte warned anybody intent on stirring up trouble in Guinea that they would be punished to the full extent of the law, AFP reported on Friday. Speaking on the 14th anniversary of the coup which brought him to power, he said nobody had the right to promote political, racial or religious conflict. He called on Guineans to remain calm. Last week, security forces clashed with residents of an area designated for demolition. Nine people were killed and about 60 people, including Mamadou Ba, leader of the opposition Union pour la Nouvelle Republique (UNR), were arrested. Meanwhile, Guinean opposition parties on Thursday called for Ba's immediate and unconditional release.
CHAD: Government lifts suspension of human rights groups
The Chadian government on Thursday lifted its ban against several local human rights groups, AFP reported. The groups had called on the Chadian population to observe a day of mourning in late March to "pressure the army to disengage from southern Chad". The Chadian authorities accused them of echoing false and destabilising information on the clashes in the southern city of Moundou between the army and the rebel Forces Armees pour la Republique Federale (FARF) in October 1997. Some one hundred civilians were allegedly killed, AFP added. The suspension was put in place on 25 March.
BENIN/TOGO: Bank loan to ease power shortage
The West African Development Bank (BOAD) granted a loan of US $2.8 million to the governments of Togo and Benin to address the countries' acute power shortages, AFP reported on Friday. The loan would enable them to buy gas turbines to increase their power generating capacity. Since mid-February, Benin and Togo have been hit by a severe power shortage caused by the very low levels of water in the Akossombo dam in Ghana. The government of Cote d'Ivoire has promised to provide 50 megawatts of electricity to both countries in an effort to address the shortage. 90 percent of the countries' power needs comes from Ghana. A Togolese official quoted by AFP said he expected to meet around 80 percent of demand in the next couple of months.
COTE D'IVOIRE: Peacekeeping contingent bound for CAR
The Government of Cote d'Ivoire on Friday announced that it would send its first contingent of peacekeepers to participate in the United Nations Mission for the Central African Republic (MINURCA), news agencies reported. A statement issued after a cabinet meeting said it was the first time that Cote d'Ivoire was participating in a peacekeeping mission, whose role was to consolidate the reconciliation process in the CAR. The Ivorian contingent's role would be circumscribed to medical assistance and controlling and monitoring weapons handed in during the disarmament exercise. Cote d'Ivoire contributed a medical team to ECOMOG in Liberia.
Abidjan, 3 April 1998, 19.05 gmt
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-updates]
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 1998 19:17:15 +0000 (GMT) From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@wa.dha.unon.org> Subject: IRIN-West Africa Daily Update 180, 98.4.3 Message-Id: <Pine.LNX.3.95.980403191515.27756A-100000@wa.dha.unon.org>
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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